This piece first appeared on the Tallahassee Democrat. A national firestorm has erupted over a commentary published in the Wall Street Journal over Jill Biden’s use of “Dr.” as a prefix to her name. I now use the honorific, which is common in higher education, but I largely ignored it prior to coming to Florida State University…
Category: Politics
Making Sense of January 6th: What We Know About Why Mobs Emerge
Editor Note: Over the coming weeks, The College of Social Sciences and Public Policy at Florida State University will work to provide experiential and academic faculty perspectives on the causes and consequences of the events surrounding January 6, 2021. This means that some posts will offer academic analyses of the events, other posts will mix…
Making Sense of January 6th: Trump’s Capitol Offense
Editor Note: Over the coming weeks, The College of Social Sciences and Public Policy at Florida State University will work to provide experiential and academic faculty perspectives on the causes and consequences of the events surrounding January 6, 2021. This means that some posts will offer academic analyses of the events, other posts will mix…
Policy Pub: Campaigns in a New Environment: A Retrospective into Political Campaigns in 2020
To learn about these topics in more depth, please navigate here to watch the full Policy Pub and Q&A from Dr. Hassell, presented by FSU’s College of Social Sciences and Public Policy. This policy pub discusses politics in a time of crisis and change and other new realities that have made this year’s national elections unlike any…
FSU Announces New Institute of Politics.
The institute will celebrate American democracy and promote citizen engagement. In October of 2020, Florida State University announced the launch of its new Institute of Politics (IOP@FSU), a non-partisan, world-class home for civic engagement and research, which will showcase the role of politics in improving the lives of Americans. Housed within the College of Social…
Policy Pub: What’s Next? Comprehending Post-Election
To learn about these topics in more depth, please navigate here to watch the full Policy Pub webinar presented by FSU’s College of Social Sciences and Public Policy. The FSU Alumni Association, in partnership with the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy, the LeRoy Collins Institute and the FSU Institute of Politics, hosted this…
Ph.D. Spotlight: Political Bias in America’s Universities
Conservative media, politicians, interest groups, citizens, and even academics often discuss the leftist orientation and perceived intellectual decline of the American college campus. Based on nationally representative surveys, a majority of Republican partisans and leaners say that colleges and universities have more of a negative than a positive impact on society. What stokes this conservative…
Social Science Scholar: Squaring China’s Policy of Non-Intervention with its Current Conflict Mediation
Over the summer, I participated in an eight-week Chinese language workshop through Indiana University’s nationally recognized Flagship Language Initiative. The program covers the equivalent of two semesters of university-level Chinese, and I achieved an intermediate high Chinese proficiency rating after beginning the program at only the elementary level. The program also focused on how to…
Social Science Scholar: The Effects of College Education on Voter Turnout
Over the summer, I had the opportunity to participate in Carnegie Mellon University’s Junior Summer Institute as a Public Policy and International Affairs Fellow. This six-week program focused on training a diverse group of student leaders for futures in public service, with an emphasis on developing applied skills for policy formulation and analysis. The core of this…
Ph.D. Spotlight: Democratic Blind Spots: Organized Labor and the Persistence of Subnational Authoritarianism in Mexico
Newly transitioned democracies frequently exhibit authoritarian traits at the subnational level. Despite incentives to transition to democracy, subnational transitions occur unevenly. Some occur through natural electoral change, others due to intervention, while some enclaves are able to resist these pressures entirely. Thus, a question arises: under what conditions are subnational autocracies able to resist these…
